Yesterday, Nintendo of Japan announced that it would acquire a majority share of Bandai Namco's Singapore-based development studio. In an investment notice, Shuntaro Furukawa (Nintendo president) outlined a planned 80% takeover of the overseas outfit, with an agreed April 1, 2026 completion. The remaining portion of shares will be purchased at a later date. Earlier this month, Nintendo revealed ambitions to strengthen game development across its internal studio portfolio. Part of this initiative included an: "acquiring (of) development companies." These new subsidiaries would then augment existing development facilities.

Officially, Bandai Namco Studios Singapore (BNSS) has already contributed—as a contracted support group—to the development of Splatoon 3 (2022), a first-party Nintendo title. The rumor mill proposed that a (now scrapped) version of Metroid Prime 4 was being worked on at BNSS prior to early 2019. Otherwise, the Southeast Asia-based outfit has worked on familiar multi-platform Bandai Namco IPs: Ace Combat, Soul Calibur, and Tekken. Unlike Xbox and Sony PlayStation, Nintendo has not expanded its international games development footprint at a rapid pace.